Challenges in involvement of male spouse in family planning program in rural areas of Varanasi

Abstract

Background: Globally, men have not shared equally with women the responsibility for fertility regulation. While family planning efforts have been directed almost toward women, the lack of male involvement may also reflect the limited options available to men. Current methods for men are condom, withdrawal, or permanent, such as vasectomy. The success of family planning depends on the involvement of couples but this hardly happen especially in rural areas. It is the belief, though erroneously among most males that the practice of family planning should be the sole responsibility of the female. The present study was a community based cross sectional study with the objective to assess challenges in involvement of male spouse in family planning program in rural areas.Methods: This is a community based and cross-sectional study was undertaken in randomly selected 4 villages of Kashi vidyapeeth block, Varanasi. Total enumeration of women from the selected villages delivered within last 3 years was done and their husbands were interviewed by using a pre-designed, pre-tested interview schedule. Chi-square test was applied to find out any association between the variables. P<0.05 was considered to be statistically significant, data was analyzed with statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) 20 trial version.Results: These preliminary findings are part of thesis shows that out of 130 interviewed respondents, majority (89.5%) had aware about family planning and two third (66.2%) of the respondents said that either they or their wives are using family planning. More than half of the respondents were aware about male sterilization but none of them were using male sterilization. Majority (77.7%) of the respondents said that human immunodeficiency virus-acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV-AIDS) and 45.4% were said that sexually transmitted diseases or sexually transmitted infections (STDs/STIs) can be prevented by use of condom. More than half (53.8%) of the respondents were sole of the decision maker regarding the use of family planning.Conclusions: The present study concludes that the majority of the respondents were awareness about the family planning but practices of family planning is low in the study area. Health workers should educate the eligible couples for use of contraceptive methods. Promotion of male contraceptive usage should be done by intense awareness campaigns.

Knowledge, Attitude and Level of Involvement of Married Males in Family Planning

“…Studies conducted by Wondum et al and Butto et al were showed almost similar findings. 13,21 Our study showed 59.4% of men encourage their spouse to use family planning and 54.5% of men support their spouse in family planning which were almost similar findings as study conducted by Wondum et al 13 It was also seen in present study that 42.9% of men approved their spouse for contraceptive use which was almost similar to a study conducted by Kassa et al 22 Regarding decision making in family planning, it was found that 54.5% of participants themselves, 30.9% participants with spouse, and 14.5% of participant's wife had taken such decisions, these findings were almost similar as study conducted by Sing et al 15 But it was discordant with the study conducted in Haryana by Walia et al 23 This difference may be due to gender difference in study population.…”

“…If we see in our study only 25.6% of participants were using condoms. It was almost similar in studies conducted by Basu et al and Nasir et al 16,20 But it was quite small than the study conducted by Sing et al 15 Though we found participant's knowledge on male contraceptives was adequate but none of them were using vasectomy. NFHS-4 data from this district also showed no participation by male in vasectomy.…”

“…From this study it was found only 55.8% of the participants had good knowledge on family planning which was almost similar studies conducted in Nigeria by Adelekan et al and in Northern Ethiopia by Wondim et al 12,13 But, it is quite higher than the study conducted in Karnataka by Chaudhary et al, it may be due to awareness increased or it may be due to different operation definition used. 14 We found all the participants knew condoms as a family planning method, it was similar as study conducted by Adelekan et al and almost similar as studies conducted by Sing et al and Basu et al 12,15,16 It was found in our study that 80.6% of participants heard about vasectomy which was almost similar to a study conducted in this setting by Dasgupta et al 17 NFHS-4 (National Family Health Survey data also showed that 88.2% of participants from this district knew vasectomy. In our study 25.9% of participants knew about CU-T as female contraceptive which was almost similar to the study conducted by Rekha et al 18 In our study 92.7% of participants told family planning is a method of preventing pregnancy, this finding was almost similar as we found in the study conducted by Adelekan et al 12 We found most common source of information about contraception was from friends (80.6%) followed by television (75.7%), health workers (34.4%), internet (14.5%).…”

“…A study conducted by Sing et al which showed main reasons for not using male contraceptives were side effects (27.8%), family pressure (18.9%) and not being comfortable (7.5%). 15 In present study, these proportions were less because spousal uses of female contraceptives were taken into account.…”

“…Which was higher than the study conducted in Varanasi. 15 This higher contribution is due to contraceptives usage by their partners was taken into account. But it is much lower than the study conducted by Basu et al 16 Male participation was also measured in current study by spousal communication and approval.…”